New 29gal

RyanJ

New member
Everyone,
I'm moving from Utah to Arizona, Phoenix area, and ended up selling my 90gal cause we thought it would be too hard to move. With the proceeds from that tank we are going to start a new 29gal or so tank. I have enough money to do everything with really good equipment. My last tank was kind of thrown together over the years. I really want to setup a sweet tank and do everything the more expensive way. Here are my questions that I have:

My light will be a Aquamedic oceanlight 250W 14K phoenix bulb, most likely that will be it (I'm carring it over from the 90).

1: Sump or no sump, and if I do one, what kind of return pump? Hangon overflow or can I drill the back of an AGA tank.
2: Skimmer, should I even worry about it?
3: UV, since I assume I wouldn't put tangs in there should I really worry about it.
4: Fish, how many and what kind do you guys keep in your nanos. I've never had a goby, blenny, wrasse or smaller fish like that.
5: What corals do you guys keep? SPS should be ok right? Lame question, but just want to see if people are having success with them in nanos.
6: A cube is not out of question, anyone know where to get one that isn't too expensive.

I would love to get any other advice you guys are willing to give. If you could set up your little tank (around 30gal) the way you want how would you do it.
 
Very cool. I noticed the blue tang. Do you recommend one? I have had one over 3 years and had to sell it. She grew big time. How long have you had yours? and would you consider putting a biowheel hangon filter on your tank at least to add carbon/ phosphoguard etc?
Ryan
 
I am just starting a 29g reef, upgrading from a skimmerless, sumpless 18g tank.

So I will try to address each of your questions as best I can.

1. I had an old 10g tank sitting around which I converted to a sump. This was actually a ton of fun and was easy! I bought a big 1/8" sheet of acrylic from homedepot and a big tube of sillicon. I cut the sheets to size and made baffles. I made smaller sections at each end, and am using the middle section for my heater and chaeto. I will also put some sand, and LR rubble, etc. I highly recommend a sump! It adds volume to the syste mand allows you to hid a lot of stuff.

For a return pump, I am currently using a RIO 1400 (ya, I know!), bu t I will be going to a mag 5 or 7 in the near future. I use 1/2" pvc
I have a HOB overflow for my return, seems to work great.

2. My skimmer is a Coralife SS 65g model. I have it hang on the side of the sump in one of the small sections. This section is also the same area where the overflow water enters. Works wonderful and is only about 90 bucks. It took a while to dial in, but now it is working wonderfully. I have a bit of a cyano burst at the moment (since I just moved everything) and today I cleaned all the glass and stirred a bunch of it up. For about an hour, the skimmer started pulling a ton of red foam, now it is back to skimming pretty dry.

3. I am not, and do not plan on running UV. From what I have heard, it is a nice for taking out ich and giving you clean water, but it also removes some beneficial bacteria as well. I think I will running mostly soft corals, so I don't think it will be necessary for me.

4. I only have a blue damsel and a maroon clown in the tank right now. I will probably be adding a purple firefish, but have yet to do my research. I know I can have more fish (4-6), barring any compatibility issues, but I like to take it real slow on the fish front.

5. I plan to do some sps when I add my 250w DE phoenix light, but I will take it real slow with these as they are the pickiest and I would like to give the tank at least 6 months before adding them. I actually had some sps in my 18g tank for about 8 months (fragged them from my dads 125g), but they died... they did show considerable growth during that time. I think it was due to water quality issues I was having since I got lazy on water changes and was running the tank without a skimmer.

6. I think you can probably do the standard 29g system and save quite a bit of money. I know you said this really wasn't a issue, but saving is always nice! I got my 29g tank with a full glass cover and light hood (which I took apart to light the inside of my stand (sump) for $50 new. I also really like the dimensions of this tank 30w x 18h x 12d really gives you a large viewing window. Although the aquascaping possibilities are probably more limited with only 12inches of depth to play with, the fish have lots of swiming distance and it looks big!

Tank shot taken JUST after moving everything (minus the corals) over from the 18. I will be adding quite a bit more liverock! My dad informs me that his 125 has too much rock, SCORE!
log11.jpg


Return line:
log4.jpg


Sump layout:
log7.jpg
 
aclos3: cool pics and thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll consider a cheaper skimmer. For my 90 I had to spend around $200, but I could do it for under $100. Also, I was thinking Mag 5 or 7 for the return. I think I would drill it though. I am renting and would be nervious about those HOB overflow boxes spilling over, I've heard some stories about those.

ChinChek787:
Got any good advice on where to buy a good tank and stand around here along with all the other equipment and live rock I'm going to need?

Thanks guys and keep the advice coming. I love to know what others are doing with their tanks.
Ryan
 
Cody, That is actually a square chunk of 2x4 that the skimmer sits on so it doesnt have to just hang on the back of the tank. Keeps it more upright, etc.

Ryan, I would love to drill that 10g (if it isnt tempered), but I don't have room in the stand, I guess i could make it go out the back. I don't think heat will be an issue even if I go with a mag 7 submerged.

I too am renting, but my HOB overflow has been awesome. It is a really high quality u-tube. No air gets trapped in it (the pic was when I was first tweaking it) and I designed the sump so that in the event of a siphon loss in the overflow, which does not happen in a power outage/restart, the return pump can only pump about 1 gallon of water to the display before running dry. The return has two siphon breaks drilled in about 1 inch below the surface of the water, so the display only drops this far in a power outage.

I really don't see dumping more than a gallon or two of water on the floor unless one of the tanks physically breaks.

I realize my tank is kinda plain jane looking right now, but I am taking things very slowly! I built a really nice canopy for the tank to house better lighting.

I also plan to add a close looped system, like in Melev's 29g setup to eliminate the power heads. Another addition in the near future will be an auto topoff system and a fan in the canopy and sump area. Probably 80mm adjustable computer fans.
 
Forgot to add the pic of my overflow. Here you can see my modified Stocktan (sp?) silencer, I have since removed the foam and will add a piece of hose to the top to make it quieter.

log9.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8310346#post8310346 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RyanJ
Very cool. I noticed the blue tang. Do you recommend one? I have had one over 3 years and had to sell it. She grew big time. How long have you had yours? and would you consider putting a biowheel hangon filter on your tank at least to add carbon/ phosphoguard etc?
Ryan

I would recommend a small blue tang for a 29 but youll inevitably have to give it up when it out grows the tank.
I have mine around 8 months, purchased at dime size... very very small.
I'm considering adding a fluval canister filter for carbon addition. Its just a pain configuring the plumbing into my "sealed" reef hood. I wouldnt use a hang on back filter because the flow is rather crude and inadjustable. A canister acts as an external powerhead.
Also id like to add that IMO the skimmerless concept works well for me because of my low fish stock, but I do feed heavily.
 
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